---
title: ‘Because I was so crooked,’ answered the young man; ‘but it has quit… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Because I was so crooked,’ answered the young man; ‘but it has quite cured me, and now my back is as straight as can be.’ Who acts: I, back. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/1/74/)

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 74

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‘Because I was so crooked,’ answered the young man; ‘but it has quite cured me, and now my back is as straight as can be.’

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**Who acts:** I, back · **What happens:** be, answer, cure · **To what, where:** young man, tree

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, back), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg5615:1:74
# text = ‘Because I was so crooked,’ answered the young man; ‘but it has quite cured me, and now my back is as straight as can be.’
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
3	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
5	so	so	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	crooked	crooked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
9	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	cured	cure	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	conj	_	_
20	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
23	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	_
24	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
26	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	as	as	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	straight	straight	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	conj	_	_
29	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	31	mark	_	_
30	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
31	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | I |  |  |  |  | crooked *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | the young man |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent man=Eventuality |
| 3 | **cure** | present · perfect · passive |  | tree |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | present | my back |  |  |  | now | straight *property* | tree rules |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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